


D is for Deep Roads

by Toastybluetwo



Series: Dragon Age Alphabet - Dagna [4]
Category: Dragon Age
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-16
Updated: 2012-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-29 16:22:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toastybluetwo/pseuds/Toastybluetwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This ficlet contains two of my OCs from Magus Rex, though this ficlet isn’t set in that universe.</p><p>This time, I deliver an action sequence. After doing a lot of thinking about what Dagna could contribute to a party in terms of game mechanics, I decided that she’d be a highly specialized rogue whose main combat skills would include different types of grenades, projectile flasks, and debuffs on enemies.</p><p>Never underestimate the power of a support character.</p>
            </blockquote>





	D is for Deep Roads

**D is for Deep Roads**

“Well, that _is_ a problem,” murmured Warden-Commander Seneca as he stood, hands clasped behind his back as he pondered the landslide of stone that lay before him. The damage to the tunnel completely blocked the archway, stretching upward well beyond Dagna’s vision. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a sinkhole on the surface from a collapse that large. Wonder what caused it. No matter.” He turned back to Dagna and addressed her. “Let us have a look at the map. There’s always a side passage.”

Dagna reached into one of the side pockets of her pack, drawing out the yellowing map. “I’d bet my distilling equipment that there’s instability in the masonry here, what with a cave-in that large,” she said as she extended the map toward the blue-uniformed elf. “We shouldn’t stay here long. This chamber might collapse, as well.”

“Don’t bet your distilling equipment on anything.” Though the words that came from Senator Lucius Quintus’s lips sounded almost lazy, even in his refined accent, Dagna could see that he was not anything short of absolutely alert. He faced an open passage, his posture erect, his staff twined around his right arm in what appeared to be a defensive stance. “It was very expensive. Spurius, my good man, do you smell any Darkspawn nearby?”

“No. Which isn’t necessarily a good sign.” Bending down, Seneca spread out the map upon the floor itself, smoothing out the wrinkles with his long fingers as his black hair fell into his face. “I confess that I am not terribly familiar with this portion of the Deep Roads. I do know that we are less likely to run into any lyrium speculators or scavengers here – mostly due to the level of Darkspawn infestation and the condition of the tunnels. Hmm.”

Raising his head, Lucius sniffed the air. “Something isn’t right,” he murmured softly, though his voice echoed off of the smooth walls of the chamber. “Dagna, come here. Tell me what you make of the air from this passage.”

Dagna had been kneeling down next to Seneca, trying to decide which of the many passageways inscribed upon the map might be their best choice for travel. She rose quickly and moved toward her employer, but as she drew closer to his side, she found that her head began to pound – first with pressure, then with a twinge of pain.

Lucius backed up two steps, but remained in his defensive posture. Dagna moved past him, drawing a grenade from her belt as she did so. As she approached the tunnel, she stretched her hearing, trying to catch any sign of life in the darkness even as her lungs began to reject the air around her, leaving her gasping for breath.

“Explosive gas.” She turned, replacing the grenade as she rushed back to Lucius’s side. It would have been the absolute, very quick end of every single soul in the chamber were she to drop that grenade now. “No fire spells! I…I wouldn’t cast any lightning spells, either, just to be sure.”

“Retreat!” Immediately, Seneca was on his feet, moving toward the opposite end of the chamber. “Go now!”

The other two Grey Wardens in their expedition party immediately headed through the pipe at the opposite end of the chamber, followed by the archaeologist from the North Circle, her apprentice, and the six mercenaries. Dagna waited with Lucius and Seneca until the others had made their way through the pipe before she herself ducked inside, crawling quickly past ancient cobwebs and into the darkness.

It was a bad position for the party to have found itself in. They had travelled for an hour through the ancient sewer pipe to avoid a literal nest of Darkspawn; Seneca had claimed to sense at least three Broodmothers nearby, possibly one other. Now, they were forced to crawl on their hands and knees as quickly as possible, with the archaeologist and her assistant tripping over their own robes in the process. Seneca seemed to travel with ease in his standard-issue Grey Warden mage robes. Lucius had left behind his fine furs and tailored silk suits in favor of his old Imperial Army uniform, complete with tall riding boots, and every piece showing sign of use, abuse, and repair.

Dagna wore trousers, a shirt, and a waistcoat, bringing with her a short cloak for the draftier passages in the Deep Roads. The cloak remained in her pack for the moment, a choice she was now grateful for. It would have hindered her progress through the pipe, as would have any of her sets of robes that she had left back in her quarters on Lucius’s estate.

“To the left! Quickly!” Seneca seemed to have forgotten that they were so close to the Darkspawn due to the urgency in and the volume of his voice.

The archaeologist scrambled, then dove down the left-hand bend in the pipe, as opposed to the downward path through which they’d come.

Dagna followed the hired men and women through the bend and immediately into what appeared to be a massive corridor not unlike many similar ones in the Deep Roads, with upper and lower paths leading, for days and days, straight in opposite directions. Seneca pushed past her, cast a knowing glance in Lucius’s direction, and drew his staff just as three Hurlocks charged toward him.

“No fire!” Lucius raised his hand, shooting a series of ice spikes toward one unfortunate Hurlock. The creature howled, reeled, and fell, its dark, tainted blood spurting from a severe head wound. “No lightning!”

Dagns’s hand froze at her belt as she watched the mercenaries charge into the fray. She typically carried at least eight grenades on any Deep Roads expedition, but at least half of them were certain to spark a massive fireball when acting in tandem with the explosive gas. Her fingers closed around one particular grenade, however, that might be well worth it to use –

“Lucius!” She shouted, raising the grenade as she pulled the pin with her free hand.

His head whirled around, his eyes immediately falling on the grenade in her hand. Then, pivoting on his heels, he raised his staff, drawing what appeared to be a glyph on the floor. Then, as he cried out a series of words in Arcanum, he slammed the end of his staff into the center of the glyph.

The words no sooner left his lips than Dagna raised her hand, hurling the grenade into an incoming group of Darkspawn with all of her might. As the grenade bounced among their booted feet, poisonous gas kicked into the air in horrible, green clouds.

A green translucent barrier sprang up from the glyph, stretching from floor to impossibly high ceiling as it spanned the walls on either side of the expedition party.

Dagna drew her dagger, prepared to go toe-to-toe with the Darkspawn themselves, but the moment never came. Most of the Darkspawn fell, choking and clawing at their own necks for a few seconds before ending up on their faces, and becoming very still. The remainder was quickly dispatched by either Seneca’s quick and efficient staff attacks, or the archaeologist’s ice spells. Lucius stepped to the back of the group, one hand remaining high in the air as he fought to maintain the barrier while, at the same time, healing the few wounds that the party did sustain.

“The Darkspawn are moving,” Seneca said between panting breaths as he brushed his long hair from his face. “We have to go away from them. Further in. We need to find a way around the explosive gas.”

“Let’s hope our path takes us straight to a node of pure lyrium.” Sweat beaded on Lucius’s forehead as he turned his head, glancing for a moment at Dagna. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. They didn’t touch me.” With shaking fingers, she sheathed her dagger. “You?”

“Not a scratch. You all should go before me. I’ll drop this barrier and put one around myself until we’re all well out of range of your grenade’s effects.” Maintaining a barrier of such a large size clearly began to have immediate effects on Lucius. His wry smile appeared forced, almost pained. “Go.”

“Well, you all heard him.” Seneca started down the road, gesturing for the rest of the expedition to follow him. “Hurry. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and pray that very little of it contains any more Darkspawn.”

The rest of the expedition immediately set off at a light jog, following Seneca into the deep shadows beyond the sewers. Dagna delayed only a few seconds, staring silently back at Lucius, grateful in this quiet space of time that they were both well, and had survived without a single bruise.

Then, before Lucius could scold her for not following orders, she turned and ran after Seneca. She only allowed herself to calm a bit once she became aware that Lucius was running next to her, the green barrier that covered him spreading and shimmering as it began to protect them both.

They ran away from the roads that led to sunlight and safety, and deeper into the Stone itself and the belly of the world.


End file.
